bter /bb83/bb: /bbCade /bbPOV /b

    I knew she wasing in for her shift today, but I still nced at the door every time it opened like some idiot in a rom. And when she finally walked in? Yeah, it was worth the wait.

    She looked tired but still not broken. The sort of tiredness that settles into your bones after a long fight you didn’t ask for, but won anyway after waging war, leaving your allid out on the battlefield.

    Her hair’s a little messier than usual, and her shoulders are a little tenser. But her eyes? They still burn with that golden fire that is unmistakably iher/ii. /i

    I catch the way her fingers tremble slightly as she runs them through her hair, like even her hands are struggling to move at full capacity right now.

    So I tease her, because that’s what I do. Because that’s how I get her to look at me like I’m not just another guy behind another counter, but like the one guy she can alwayse to if she needs some levity to break through her dark moments.

    “You’rete,” I say with no heat behind my words.

    She raises an eyebrow and gives me ithat /ilook the one that’s two seconds from a smile, “I’m ten minutes early.”

    “You’rete in smiling,” I shoot back, leaning my hip against the counter, “I’ve been waiting all day for one.”

    And there it is…

    Not a full one, just a crack, a smirk of sorts. But it’s enough to make something loosen in my chest. “There it is,” I say, my own smirk of triumph tipping my lips upwards.

    She walks behind the counter to where I’m standing, ces her bag underneath it, and wraps her apron around her waist, saying, “You’ve been waiting all day for my smile? That’s tragic, Cade. You need a better hobby,”

    When she walks behind me to grab supplies, I step aside and watch her move with this tired grace she doesn’t know she has. Then I say, “I disagree, I think making you smile might be my new full- time job.”

    I wanted to say something real, something solid. But real things scare people off when they’re fragile, like she is after today. So, I kept it light and flirty.

    She says nothing, but the corner of her mouth twitches in an almost–smile. Progress, I can work with that.

    Chapter 83: Cade POV

    A few minutester, I slide a warm drink her way my best guess at what she needs without her having to ask.

    She nces at it and then up at me, a look of curiosity evident in her living ember eyes.

    “Try it,” I say tly, not amand, but not a request, either.

    She sniffs at it suspiciously after picking it up and then takes a cautious sip. Then another, and another. That’s when I know I got it right.

    “It’s good,” she says with a serene look in her eyes as she goes to take another sip.

    I smile at herment, and my heart is happy at being able to do something so smallb, /bwhich conveys so much without her realizing it yet.

    “I thought you could use something to warm you up, inside and out,” I say with a sudden shyness that feels foreign yet right in this moment.

    She thanks me, and I swear, the way she says it? It hits harder than I expect it to. It’s not flirty or

    sarcastic. It’s just…soft, and emotion–filled. ulliMy fingers brush hers when I reach for a cup, and I don’t pull away immediately. Maybe I should, but /li/ul

    I don’t. And neither does she.

    Then I say something that surprises even me, “You ever think maybe this ce could be more than a

    side gig?” as I keep my eyes on the white ceramic cups with the Beantree logo on before me while

    ying with a napkin I used earlier to clean up a wet spot on the counter.

    Looking at me for a second, she asks, “What do you mean?”

    “I mean, you belong here. Behind the counter, and in this world. Creating things and making people feel seen. Not only as a barista, but maybe as a manager or eventually an owner.” Then I meet her eyes before winking and adding, “And not just because you make a killer cappino.”

    She looks away after that and starts organizing napkins like her life depends on it. But her silence

    isn’t cold. It’s heavy, maybe, but not cold.

    It’s after eight, and the crowd’s all but gone just a college couple whispering sweet nothings to each other over icedttes in the corner, and a dude in a hoodie who’s been pretending to read the same book for over an hour.

    –

    La’s wiping down the counter in small, precise movements the kind that says she’s thinking too hard, or trying not to think at all.

    Chapter 83: Cade POV

    I toss my towel into the sink, walk over to her, and lean my hip against the pastry disy. “You always scrub like the surface personally insulted you?” I ask in an attempt to get her out of her

    head.

    She nces at me sideways, then answers simply, “Maybe it did.”

    “Need me to rough it up for you? I throw a mean right hook,” I say as I puff out my chest.

    That earns me a tiny eye–roll and a slight smile, which I count as a win. But she doesn’t fire back Nike usual, only sighing.

    “Long day?” I ask gently.

    She nods, her hand pausing on the cloth, before saying, “One for the books.”

    I don’t ask, and she doesn’t offer to borate. But I know she will, when ishe’s /iready. And I’ll be patiently waiting till then.

    She stays close, though, not moving away to another section of the store like most of the night so far, and that’s enough for me for now. ullincing around the café, I reach under the counter, pull out one of thest cinnamon rolls, and ce it on a napkin before holding it out to her like a peace offering. /li/ul

    She eyes it skeptically, then asks, “Bribery?”

    “Absolutely,” I say. “Your smiles are expensive. And I want a very special kind of smile this time–the kind you don’t fight.”

    It takes a second, but then it happens. She bites back a smile for half a second as she epts the cinnamon roll, but then a proper smile makes her face light up as she leans her hip beside my own against the counter.

    “This ce really is better with you in it, you know,” I say, softer this time, but meaning it no less.

    Her eyes flick up to mine, and there are no walls, just tired honesty that looks back at me.

    “I mean it,” I add, “You change the energy around here. You make it feel warmer and more real,”

    She doesn’t look away this time;/she only studies me, like she’s trying to decide if I mean it or not.

    Newssh: I do.

    She tears off a piece of the roll and pops it into her mouth, and I can’t take my eyes off her lips as she chews on the sugary treat that’s leaving a sheen behind on her lips that I desperately want to

    lick off.

    Chapter 83: Cade POV

    “You’re kind of intense sometimes,” she says once she swallows.

    My answer is automatic and sincere when I say, “Only with people who matter.”

    That stops her short. The air shifts between us into something that’s not dramatic, but not casual either. It’s the sort of moment where one of us could lean in…or away. And I silently hope it’s the

    former.

    She nces at the pastry again, and then reverently says, “You’re a good guy, Cade.”

    “Why are you saying that like it’s a bad thing?” I ask as I tip my head to the side, patiently waiting

    for her answer.

    “It’s not,” she soothes. Then adds quietly, “It’s just…not what I’m used to, until recently, that is.”

    I want to tell her that maybe she should start expecting better, because she ideserves /ibetter. But instead, I nudge her with my elbow, before saying, “Finish your cinnamon roll, Sunshine. You’ll need your strength for what you have nned for your future,

    She snorts, but the look she gives me as she pops another piece of the roll into her mouth? It lingers, and is filled with an emotion I can’t wait to put into words.

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